If you believe the folks at Esquire magazine, Seattle only has one bar worth writing home about: Sambar, a tiny Ballard bar known for having good cocktails and, well, for being tiny.

Sambar is the only Seattle bar to make Esquire’s 2011 compilation of the best bars in America. There are a total of 169 bars on the list.

Adding insult to injury, Esquire didn’t even bother with much of a writeup on Sambar, briefly opining: “With four stools and six tables the size of welcome mats, this tiny, hard-to-find mixology den could have been the bar on the Moonraker. Bring a date.”

I wrote yesterday about the sudden closure of Hooters restaurants in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood and in Renton, and noted that Hooters executives were keeping mum about the reason for the shutdown.

This morning, a spokesperson for Hooters responded to my request for comment, explaining the closures were due to a legal disagreement between the franchise owner and a third party. Here’s the statement:

Three have closed their doors in the last year, most recently in Renton and Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. Last fall, a Hooters in South Park closed after just a year in business.

That leaves just two Hooters restaurants in Washington state, according to the company’s website. Anyone looking to eat a burger while watching young women hula hoop in tank tops and tube socks will need to head for Tacoma or Spokane.

The closure of the South Lake Union Hooters came swiftly, with this message on the restaurant’s Facebook page: “CLOSED!” A makeshift paper sign on the door of the Chandler’s Cove building, owned by billionaire Paul Allen’s company Vulcan, says it’s closed for renovation.